The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960

by Eric Mumford

• ISBN13: 9780262133647
• ISBN10: 0262133644
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

CIAM (Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne), founded in Switzerland in 1928, was an avant-garde association of architects intended to advance both modernism and internationalism in architecture. CIAM saw itself as an elite group revolutionizing architecture to serve the interests of society. Its members included some of the best-known architects of the twentieth century, such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Richard Neutra, but also hundreds of others who looked to it for doctrines on how to shape the urban environment in a rapidly changing world. In this first book-length history of the organization, architectural historian Eric Mumford focuses on CIAM's discourse to trace the development and promotion of its influential concept of the "Functional City." He views official doctrines and pronouncements in relation to the changing circumstances of the members, revealing how CIAM in the 1930s began to resemble a kind of syndicalist party oriented toward winning over any suitable authority, regardless of political orientation. Mumford also looks at CIAM's efforts after World War II to find a new basis for a socially engaged architecture and describes the attempts by the group of younger members called Team 10 to radically revise CIAM's mission in the 1950s, efforts that led to the organization's dissolution in 1959.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Foreword	xi
Kenneth Frampton
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction	1	(8)
CIAM, 1928--1930	9	(50)
Modern Architects' Congress, 1928	9	(15)
La Sarraz, Switzerland, 1928	16	(8)
La Sarraz Declaration	24	(20)
Frankfurt, 1929: The Existenzminimum	27	(17)
Le Corbusier, the Green City, and His ``Response to Moscow''	44	(15)
Brussels, 1930: Rational Lot Development	49	(10)
The Functional City, 1931--1939	59	(72)
The Theme of the Functional City	59	(7)
Application Case: Barcelona, 1932	66	(25)
1933: The Functional City	73	(18)
CIAM, 1933--1936	91	(40)
Paris, 1937: Dwelling and Recreation	104	(13)
Transplanting CIAM, 1: England, 1937--1942	117	(6)
Transplanting CIAM, 2: America and Europe, 1938--1939	123	(8)
CIAM and the Postwar World, 1939--1950	131	(70)
CIAM as Propaganda: Sert's Can Our Cities Survive?	131	(11)
The New York CIAM Chapter for Relief and Postwar Planning, 1943--1945	142	(8)
The New Monumentality	150	(3)
Le Corbusier and ASCORAL, 1940--1946	153	(6)
CIAM, 1946--1947	159	(4)
The New Empiricism	163	(35)
Bridgwater, England, 1947	168	(11)
Bergamo, Italy, 1949	179	(19)
``Concerning Architectural Culture'': Zevi's Critique of CIAM	198	(3)
From the ``Heart of the City'' to the End of CIAM	201	(66)
Hoddesdon, England, 1951: The Heart of the City	201	(14)
In Search of ``Habitat'': Sigtuna, Sweden, 1952	215	(23)
Aix-en-Provence, 1953: The Charter of Habitat	225	(13)
Team 10 and CIAM 10, Dubrovnik, 1956	238	(20)
CIAM'59 in Otterlo and the End of CIAM	258	(9)
After CIAM	267	(8)
Appendix: Chronology of CIAM and CIAM-CIRPAC Meetings	275	(2)
Notes	277	(66)
Bibliography	343	(18)
Figure Credits	361	(2)
Index	363